07/10/2026 - Lisa Debauche and Naël Khleifi paint the portrait of a young woman torn apart by exile, who tries to rebuild her life far from other people by becoming a shepherdess in the Alps

Unveiled last summer at Locarno, in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition, where the film earned the Best Performance Award for French-Lebanese actress Manal Issa, Summer Meadow by directorial duo Lisa Debauche and Naël Khleifi is having its Belgian premiere in the First Feature Competition of the Namur International Francophone Film Festival.

In it, we follow Hana (played by Issa), a trainee shepherdess leading a solitary life in the Alps, far from other people, near Gap. We see her, so tiny against the vast landscape, and we also see the animals and their synchronised, almost hypnotic movements, as if they were one with the mountain itself. Hana has become withdrawn, crushed by the weight of exile and the longing for her country, Lebanon, as well as for the loved ones she left behind as a child, fleeing the war that has ravaged the region for decades. She loses herself in learning this tough, repetitive and demanding profession, where her body is put to the test by the harsh working conditions. She is in training, and is constantly questioned about her ability and her choices. Alone among the sheep, ever on alert, she begins to notice some unsettling signs, as if the mountain were secretly inhabited, until she glimpses the furtive silhouettes of three young men who, rather than bringing danger with them, seem to be fleeing it. Joined by Lisa, who comes to help her care for the animals, she will gradually forge new bonds and, in doing so, unfurl hidden layers of her own story, in which the horrors of war are intertwined with a love for her homeland, which she cannot live in yet so desperately misses.

In his previous film, the 2021 documentary Alpes, Khleifi followed men and women who, acting illegally, provide help and assistance to migrants crossing the border between Italy and France. In Summer Meadow, written and directed together with Debauche, he revisits that border and the questions of exile, assistance and the humanity shown by some in the face of the sheer inhumanity of the system. Closely observing the work itself, but also the mountain and the fascinating fusion between the animal and the mineral, the filmmakers adopt a cinematic approach that combines a drive towards fiction, allowing these stories to be truly embodied, with a documentary concern for conveying a particular sense of space and time. They give French-Lebanese actress Issa a role that she inhabits by turns with intensity and mystery, making us feel, beyond words, the pain of exile, the weight of solitude and also the beauty, amid the chaos, of forging a genuine connection with other human beings. A brief but striking film, Summer Meadow offers a different perspective on stories of migration that already lie at the heart of contemporary society and are only set to become increasingly central from here on in.

Summer Meadow was produced by Michigan Films (Belgium), with the support of the aide aux productions légères (light production support) from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Film and Audiovisual Centre, and was co-produced by Les Films de l’oeil sauvage in France and Sourat Films in Belgium.

(Translated from French)